The majority of UFC events stream live on ESPN+ and it was recently revealed by Disney, which owns ESPN+, that the streaming service has 6.6 million subscribers.
However, according to Eric Fischer of SportsBusiness Group, citing Disney CEO Bob Iger, the number of subscribers for ESPN+ is actually 7.6 million, with the 1 million subscriber number being boosted due to the return of McGregor:
It should be noted that just because there is a growth in the subscriber base, it doesn?t mean that the streaming service is turning a major profit.
?The increase in operating loss at ESPN+ was primarily due to higher programming costs, primarily for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) rights, and an increase in marketing spend, partially offset by subscriber revenue growth and UFC pay-per-view fees,? stated the official Disney report (via John Nash).